Causes of Substance Abuse
This section contains articles on some of the many factors thought to contribute to substance use, abuse, and dependence. It includes discussions of Drug Effects and Biological Responses, Genetics Learning, and an article on the Psychological (Psychoanalytic) Perspective. Sociocultural causes and Vulnerability, are discussed in several articles throughout the Encyclopedia, for example, Ethnicity and Drugs, Families and Drug Use, Poverty and Drugs. See also the article Disease Concept of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction and the section on Vulnerability.
Drug Effects and Biological Responses
Although many indirect factors lead to an individual abusing drugs, a person's response to the effects of the drugs themselves contribute both to their use and abuse. These drug effects should be considered in relation to four phases of drug use: (1) initiation-consolidation, (2) maintenance, (3) repeated withdrawal and relapse, and (4) postwithdrawal. During the initiation-consolidation phase, behaviors that lead to the taking of a drug are gradually strengthened through operant and classical conditioning processes and by biochemical changes in the brain. The drug effects include a cascade of discriminative or internally appreciated drug cues (i.e., subjective effects). The presence of these cues often leads to associated autonomic responses and reports of urges in humans.
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